Narcotics Anonymous is an international nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. After Alcoholics Anonymous, it’s the second-largest 12-step organization.

Well-known and respected in English-speaking countries, the nonprofit fellowship lacks awareness in France where substitution drugs and cures in rehab centers are preferred.

We were tasked with building awareness around NA and highlighting their method to those in search of a solution: substance users but also their friends and family, public or political entities and health authorities.

After two years of Covid crisis, addiction issues have reached an all-time high. Two years during which Narcotics Anonymous had to close the doors of its physical meetings due to restrictions. It’s an understatement to say that lots of addicts have been looking for a solution ever since.

As fellowship members told us, the first reason why they tend to avoid NA’s meeting is a feeling of shame.

The shame to be recognized, the shame to be seen as an addict.

To face this issue, we have designed a pilot project.

NAVerse: The First Narcotics Anonymous meeting in the metaverse.

An invitation to share, listen and support each other. Perpetuating the full feeling of fraternity favored by NA’s method…But with full anonymity. And free of shame thank to the avatars.

Helped by NA members, we identified people aiming for sobriety but too ashamed to seek help, and experienced members to mentor them into this pilot project.

We created a cozy metaverse environment to make sure they felt safe.

To trigger a societal debate on a global scale and reach family of users, public and health authorities we’ve also invited journalists from the most important French’s newspapers.

We trained every participant to enable them to create their own avatars and to use the Virtual reality set just before the meeting.

The meeting lasted for one hour, followed by a press conference and one to one interviews, also held in the metaverse.

We filmed the whole meeting and created the first capture of a NA meeting in history followed by a short “best of” version sent to the French Press to highlight the power of the fellowship and NA’s method at a large scale.

The outreach exceeded our expectations:

81 million people reached; a wide media coverage, both national and international; a 158% traffic increase on Narcotics Anonymous’ French website; all participating members joined a physical meeting afterwards.

And most importantly, these meaningful meetings will continue with an upcoming NAVerse meeting in Canada.